Golf Club Head with Ripple Structure

ABSTRACT

A golf club head with a shell structure constituting with a body part and a hitting surface (face) incorporates, a groove is formed in the body part near the interface with the hitting surface. Several additional ripples are formed in the inner surface of the face plate. The groove in the body part and ripples of the inner surface of the face plate contributed as a powerful shock absorber but also preventing breakage of the head as well as strong repulsive mechanism improving flying distances.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of Invention

This invention relates generally to golf clubs and more particularly tothe improvement of the driver head and fairway metal head.

2. Description of Prior Art

Conventional golf clubs especially drivers have been improved tomaximize flying distances by increasing repulsive power of driver'sstriking face. Early efforts have lead to thin head faces withsupporting structures (U.S. Pat. No. 5,776,001) to prevent breakage.Lately, more advanced structures such as volcano or convex like shapes(U.S. Pat. No. 5,830,084, U.S. Pat. No. 5,954,596 or U.S. Pat. No.7,338,338 B2) with thick center portions and thin peripheral portionshave been developed to increase repulsive power without breakage fromhigh ball contact stress.

Even though the recent improvements described prevent breakage of thesweet spot area, these kinds of structures suffer from having the weightin the center face which result in a smaller MOI, and having a fragileperipheral region near the boundary of the face. Consequently, sometimesbreakage of the driver face occurs as the driver strikes a ball outsideof the sweet spot.

SUMMARY OF INVENTION

This invention was thought out to solve the problems mentioned above.Based on the impact mechanics, as the driver head face impacts the golfball, the impact area absorbs shock energy and stores it by flexingbackward at the moment of impact. The flexed driver head face improvesenergy transfer efficiency to the golf ball. Additionally, the flex ofthe driver head face results in a lower peak stress. By achieving thisdriver head face flex without substantial thinning of the sweet spotperiphery, the proposed invention avoids the breakage issues associatedwith previous designs.

At ball impact, significant bending stresses are imparted to the clubhead face due to the kinetic energy transfer (E=mv²/2 where m is themass of the head and v is the speed of the head). If the stress ofimpact exceeds the material limits, the club head face or adjacent areacan crack.

In most cases, microscopic observation shows that this crackingphenomenon of the of the face plate is triggered by the separation ofthe inner metal surface. The cracking phenomenon is due the impactstresses exceeding the allowable stresses of the inner surface of thefaceplate. Breakage of the body (shell) can also occur as the ball hitsthe adjacent area to the body. In this case, impact energy cannot beabsorbed and most impact energy is concentrated upon the body part nearthe hitting area.

This invention provides a golf club having improved ball flightdistances with relatively lower breakage rate of the club head. This isachieved by adding a groove as a shock absorbing device on the body partadjacent to the hitting area and constructing several donut or spiralshaped ripples on the inner surface of the face plate of hittingsurface.

To achieve the goal mentioned above, the head of the golf club must haveshell type construction which is composed of a hitting area and a bodyarea which includes a groove and a hosel that is connected to a shaft.

Conventionally, the face of the club head absorbs impact energy at themoment of impact against the golf ball and the face is bent in theopposite direction of the club head's movement. However, with theproposed structure, which has a slightly larger inner surface of a faceplate than conventional structures, the stress diverges very fastthrough the thin and thick parts formed alternately as concentric rings(or ellipses). Consequently, regardless of the impact spot of the face,the stress per unit area is lower than that of conventional drivers andthus lowers the brakeage rate of the driver head.

Due to improved repellant power by the thin parts of the ripples(valley) and the raised maximum impact strength of the thick part of theripples (peak), the club head has increased the driving distances with alower breakage rate compared to the conventional designs. Also, thegroove adjacent to the face works as a shock absorber and absorb theimpact energy when the impact occurs on the peripheral region of theface.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows a perspective view of this invention

FIG. 2 shows a cross sectional view of the club head that shows ripplesin the body part

FIG. 3 shows a rear view of hitting surface on first embodiment of thisinvention

FIG. 4 shows a cross sectional view of hitting surface on firstembodiment of this invention

FIG. 5 shows a rear view of hitting surface on second embodiment(spiral) of this invention

FIG. 6 shows a cross sectional view of hitting surface on secondembodiment (spiral) of this invention

DESCRIPTION OF THE FIRST EMBODIMENT OF INVENTION

The first embodiment of this invention illustrated as in FIG. 1 isconstructed with a thin shell type body part 1 and hitting surface part10. A groove 5 is formed on the body part 1 near the hosel 3 andadjacent to the hitting surface 10.

The groove 5 on the body part 1 starts right next from the hosel 3,stretched along the top 7 of the body part 1 and continues all the wayto the opposite side of the hosel 3. The cross section of the groove 5has a half cylinder shape.

The first embodiment of the inner surface of the face plate of hittingarea is formed with oval shaped lines of peaks 22, 24, 26 and valleys21, 23, 25, 27 which are as illustrated in FIGS. 3 & 4. Reference to thefront surface 19 of hitting area 10, the height of the peaks 22, 24, 26and the valleys 21, 23, 25, 27 are highest in the center and get loweras it move away from the center.

With a detailed description, the thickness D21 of the valley 21 isthicker than the thickness D23 of the valley 23, the thickness D23 ofthe valley 23 is thicker than the thickness D25 of the valley 25 and thethickness D25 of the valley 25 is thicker than the thickness D27 of thevalley 27. Also, the height D22 of the peak 22 is higher than the heightD24 of 24 and the height D24 of the peak 24 is higher than the heightD26 of the peak 26.

These peaks 22, 24, 26 and valleys 21, 23, 25, 27 are connected smoothlysuch as sign or cosine type waves with no sharp edges.

DESCRIPTION OF THE SECOND EMBODIMENT OF INVENTION

As illustrated in FIGS. 5 & 6, the second embodiment of this inventionhas a spiral shaped series of peaks. First peak 30 starts at the centerof the inner surface of the face plate 20 of hitting area 10 and lastpeak 31 ends at the peripheral of the inner surface of the face plate ofhitting area. Furthermore, the height D30 of the peak 30 is the highestand starts to get gradually lower and connected to the peak 31 which isthe lowest part D31 of the line of peaks.

Similarly the valley 40 at the center of the inner surface 20 is linedsmoothly with the valley 41 on the peripheral of the inner face and thethickness D40 of the valley 40 at the center of the inner face 20 is thethickest and the thickness D41 of the valley 41 on the peripheral of theface is the thinnest among The thickness of the valley 40 becomesshallower gradually meeting the valley 41 smoothly where the peak 31ends.

1. A golf club head with groove in the body part comprising ellipseshaped ripples with at least more than two valleys and two peaks on theinner surface of the face plate.
 2. A golf club head with groove in thebody part comprising at least more than one spiral shaped peak andvalley on the inner surface of the face plate.
 3. A golf club head asclaimed in claim 1 & 2, wherein: center of the inner surface of the faceplate forms as a valley of the ripple and boundary of the inner surfaceof the face plate also forms as a valley of the ripple.
 4. A golf clubhead as claimed in claim 1 & 2, wherein: height of the peaks are higheras those closer to the center and are lower as those closer to theboundary of the inner surface of the face plate referenced on the frontface of hitting surface.
 5. A golf club head as claimed in claim 1 & 2,wherein: peaks and valleys in the ripple structures are connectedsmoothly with no sharp edges